PUTNAM PYNCHON. 



289 



erals were nominated by Congress for the Continental | 

 army, but Putnam was the only one to whom Washing- 

 ton on taking the chief command delivered the com - 

 mission. After the evacuation of Boston Putnam went 

 with Washington to the defence of New York city. He 

 was to blame for the defeat suffered on Long Island, 

 Aug. 27,1776. In the winter he was called by Congress to 

 superintend the fortification of Philadelphia, and after 

 the battle of Princeton was stationed in New Jersey. 

 In spring he took charge of the highlands of the Hud- 

 son, his chief duty being to watch the movements of 

 the British from New York city. The capture of a 

 lieutenant of a Tory regiment and Sir Henry Clinton's 

 demand for his treatment as a British officer led to 

 Putnam's famous letter : 



" SIR : Edmund Palmer, an officer in the enemy's 

 service, was taken as a spy lurking 'within our lines ; 

 In; has been tried as a spy, condemned as a spy, and 

 shall be executed as a spy, and the flag is ordered to 

 depart immediately. IstlAEL PUTNAM. 



"P. S. He has been accordingly executed." 



After the loss of Forts Montgomery and Clinton in 

 October. 1777, a court of inquiry was ordered arid, 

 though Putnam was declared free of blame, Washing- 

 ton, in deference to popular feeling, removed him from 

 the command. He was stationed in Connecticut when 

 (iov. Tryon. with 1500 men, made a raid into the State. 

 Putnam with but 150 men faced him at Horseneck, and 

 when obliged to retreat ordered his men to take refuge 

 in a swamp, while he on horseback rushed down a steep 

 declivity where the enemy's dragoons would not ven- 

 ture to follow. He afterwards harassed Tryon's retreat. 

 In 1779 he returned to command in the Hudson High- 

 kmls and assisted in fortifying West Point, whose im- 

 portance as a stronghold he had previously pointed 

 out. In the following winter he was disabled by pa- 

 ralysis, and thenceforth remained on his farm, where he 

 died May 19, 1790. His tombstone bears tlie inscrip- 

 tion, "He dared to lead where any dared to follow." 

 His Life was written by Gen. D. Humphreys (1790), 

 by 0. W. B. Peabody in Sparks's Amfriciin Biography 

 (1842V and by Increase N. Tarbox (1876). 



PUTNAM, RUFL-S (1738-1824), general, cousin of 

 Israel Putnam, was born at Sutton, Mass., April 9, 

 1738. He became a millwright, but served as a soldier 

 in the campaigns against the French in 1757-60. On 

 settling at New Braintree, .Mass., he became proficient 

 in surveying. In 1773 he took part in the expedition 

 under Gen. Lyman to examine lands on the Southern 

 -ippi. supposed to have been granted to soldiers 

 who served in the Freneh war. On the outbreak of the 

 Revolution he was lieutenant-colonel and displayed 

 such ability in constructing defences at Roxbury that 

 he won the esteem of Washington. In 1776 he was 

 chief engineer of the det'enees of New York city, but, 

 though Congress gave him that appointment with rank 

 of colonel, he resigned to take command of a Massa- 

 chusetts regiment. He fought at the battle of Still- 

 water and in 177s with his cousin superintended the 

 fortifying of West Point. At the close of the war he 

 was made a brigadier-general. He assisted in quelling 

 s rebellion in 1787. Being made superintendent 

 of the Ohio Land Company which he baa been active 

 in forming, he laid out Marietta, Ohio, in 1788. He 

 was appointed a judge of the North-west Territory in 

 IT'in. and in 1796 U. 8. surveyor-general. In Gen. 

 W ivne's expedition against the Indians of Ohio Put- 

 nam was a brigadier-general and afterwards a commis- 

 sioner to make a treaty with the tribes on theWabash, 

 which was done at Vinocnnes, Sept. 27, 1792. In 1803 

 Pres. Jefferson removed him from office. After serv- 

 ing in the Ohio Constitutional Convention in that 

 year he held no public position. He died at Marietta, 

 May 4. IS24. 



I'l TTKAMKR, ROBERT Vnrrrm VON, a Prussian 

 Matehinan. was born May 5, 1828, at Frankfort-on-the- 

 Oder, his father afterwards becoming president of the 



province of Posen. He attended the gymnasium of 

 his native city and the real-gymnasium of Berlin. In 

 1846 he entered the University of Berlin and after- 

 wards those of Heidelberg and Geneva, studying 

 jurisprudence, political economy, modern languages, 

 and history. After passing his first examination in the 

 court of appeals at Marienwerder in 1850, he prac- 

 tised as auscultator in the court at Dantzic; in 1851 

 he became court-referendary ; in 1852 government re- 

 ferendary, and, after two years in this capacity in the ad- 

 ministration of Posen, he rose, in 1854, to the post of 

 government assessor. In the same year he was called 

 to serve as assistant-adviser in the railroad department 

 of the ministry of commerce. Here he was employed 

 four years under the under-secretary of State Von Pom- 

 mer Esche, whom, in .January, 1859, he accompanied, 

 as adviser-in-chief, to Coblentz. In 1860 he was ap- 

 pointed councillor of the district of Dcmniin and, dur- 

 ing the war of 1866, he was civil commissioner of 

 Moravia. On the conclusion of peace he entered, as 

 assistant-minister, the department of the interior; 

 thereafter he became consulting council in the newly 

 founded bund-chancery. In 1871 he became govern- 

 ment-president of Guuibinnen ; in 1875 district-presi- 

 dent of Lorraine; in 1877 chief president of Silesia. 

 On the retirement of Minister Falk, in 1879, he under- 

 took the'office of minister of instruction with the pur- 

 pose of furthering the negotiations between Pope Leo 

 XIII. and the Prussian government for the promotion of 

 peace between church and state. With this view he 

 succeeded in passing a measure through the diet which 

 empowered the ministry to set aside certain provisions 

 of the "May laws." By his ordinance, dated Jan. 

 21, 1880, a reformed mode of spelling (called "Putt- 

 kamer's orthography ") was introduced into Prussian 

 schools. On June 18, 1881, he undertook the minis- 

 try of the interior, and, in October, was elevated to 

 be vice-president of the Prussian state-ministry. 



His cousin and brother-in-law, MAXIMILIAN VON 

 PrTTKAMER, born in 1831, at Gross-Rossin in Ponier- 

 ania, after studying law in Bonn and Berlin, passed 

 through various offices, till, in 1879, he was named, as 

 chief of the administration of justice, a member of 

 the newly appointed ministry of Alsace-Lorraine. 

 He began his parliamentary career as a member of the 

 North-German constituent assembly in 1867, and be- 

 longed to the National-liberal party, but afterwards 

 withdrew from it on the protective tariff question. In 

 1881 he was defeated as a candidate for re-election to 

 the imperial parliament, but in the next year the en- 

 tire administration of prisons and instruction, except 

 public schools, was intrusted to him. 



PYNCHON, WILLIAM (159(Hf.u2), a settler of 

 Massachusetts, was born at Springfield, Essex, Eng- 

 land, in 1590. He was of ancient family and well edu- 

 cated. In the charter of the colony of Massachusetts 

 Bay, granted by Charles I., March 28, 1628, he is 

 named as one of the patentees and also as one of the 

 assistants in governing the colony. In company with 

 Gov. John Wirithrop in 1630 he came to America and 

 was one of the first settlers of Roxbury. Being weal- 

 thy, he engaged in the fur-trade with the Indians, and 

 was made treasurer of the colony. In a few years 

 many of the settlers desired to remove to the Connec- 

 ticut River and I'ynchon led a colony in 1636 to Spring- 

 field. The land was purchased from the Indians and 

 he was made chief magistrate and so continuec 1 till 

 1651, being also for most of the time a member of the 

 General Court. The change was occasioned by the 

 publication of his book, Tlie Meritnrimu Price of Our 

 Redemption (London, 1650), in which he maintained that 

 Christ did not suffer the punishment due to man's sins 

 but by his perfect obedience procured man's redemp- 

 tion. The General ( 'ourt pronounced the book heret- 

 ical and called upon Rev. John Norton, of Ipswich, to 

 answer it. which he did to their satisfaction. Mean- 

 while Pynchon had stated to the court that his views 

 were somewhat modified after conference with Norton. 



